Dec 10
Dec 10, 2014
The sun’s come out and is shining over the stern through the hatch warming the cabin. The sea is very short and steep so West Wind is battling through these waves with some force tossing them aside one after another. The motion is very herky jerky and occasionally she comes across three or four in row that bring her up short but she pushes on undaunted, slowly but surely fighting back with amazing tenacity.
It will be a bumpy ride tonight, but for now the sun is shining. Kind of a metaphor for life, don’t you think?
Later that afternoon …
This beating into these waves this afternoon is starting to put me on edge a bit. I spoke with Cliff on the radio this afternoon.
I’ve been lying down reading and just got up to make some tea. I burned my fingers on the cup which I was warming – nothing serious. The tea has hit the spot.
This weather pattern seems to be holding steady so if I can take the pounding, we will put some miles behind us today and through the night.
The nights have been cloudy and I have not experienced the full aurora of the milky way here in the southern hemisphere yet. The moon has cast some light through clouds and occasionally shines brightly.
Not that hungry tonight but I am sure a little stew will warm me up a bit. The rice is so good with the stew. It is 1:23 am at home so you will be tucked warmly in bed.
Thinking of you through the night.
Later that evening …
The sun is setting off our stern. The clouds are scudding west in cotton batten flocks like sheep that seem to stack up on the far horizon as if at the edge of a fence. The sun is obscured but for red fringes on the flying sheep occasionally breaking through and shining over the flock reflecting in the coming flocks from the eastern sky.
Once the heat from the ‘orb’ is cooled in the great Southern Ocean, the sheep turn grey but keep stampeding ever onward filling the far horizon.
Silently and invisibly, the east wind blows power into West Wind’s sails and she shoulders her way obediently through the legions of white crested waves, tossing aside those that confront her strident surges.
Her motion below is smooth and rhythmic like that of a powerful steed with the bit in her teeth. It’s amazing to witness this extraordinary exchange of energy between the wind and the set of the sails.
I am a lone sailor on this privileged voyage across the ocean taken by thousands of sailors before me over hundreds of years, all sharing in its wonder, and mysterious moods.
There are huge birds here that have sailed these vast oceans long before we mere mortals. They are at one, also harnessing the great energy of the wind and riding the oceans of waves in a motion as moving as a symphony. This is their domain.
I am a visitor, and here only for a brief moment to test my ego against this formidable environment.
May the forces that created this watery domain let me pass unscathed back to my earthly world where the love of my life patiently waits on the shore.
I am missing you tonight my love.
These words grew out of a few moments while I sat in the companion way observing the world around me. It is astonishing to me that those feelings and the ability to put them into these words lives within me only at sea.
XO
